LIVING WITHOUT
LIES
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 18:9-14
OCTOBER 25, 2009
It was our Lord Jesus who told the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican and how these two men went up onto the temple mount and into the temple to pray. Some people have assumed, therefore, that this parable is about prayer, but it is not. It has application for prayer, but the primary focus and message of the parable is unrelated to prayer. Some have thought well, maybe this parable is about pride and humility. And it certainly is. Jesus tells us that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. But at bottom, at the deepest level, this parable is about lies. At the deepest level, this parable is about self-perception—how you perceive yourself before God and how you perceive yourself in relationship to others. The Bible tells us Jesus told this parable for some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and who look down on others. So how do you view yourself before God and how do you view yourself in relationship to other people? Are you living a lie?
Now, the Pharisee and the Publican, in a sense, were very similar. They were both servants of the law. The Pharisee was a servant of the Jewish law and he was a servant of the Torah, the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses and the Decalogue. He had memorized the Torah. All Pharisees in order to be a Pharisee had to have memorized the Torah. He considered himself a custodian of the Torah, a custodian of God’s law.
The Publican, on the other hand, was also a servant of the law, but not the Jewish law. Although the Publican was a Jewish man, he was not a servant of the Jewish law; he was a servant of the Roman law. The Publicanus was the name of the treasury in Rome. So the Roman government and the Roman Empire had this vast treasury in the city of Rome and it was called the Publicanus. The Publicani were those who served the treasury. The most prominent members of the Publicani were those who lived in Rome. They were very powerful, very rich, and very high ranking. But there were members of the Publicani that were Publicans throughout the provinces throughout the Roman Empire and they were tax collectors.
They were sometimes called Portotaurus, port bulls, but they didn’t just operate at ports and harbors. At the gates of the city, they took taxes from the people. The money was sent to the Publicanus. They money was sent to the treasury in Rome. Not all of it. They collected enough taxes that there was plenty of money for themselves. This Jew, who was a member of the Publicani, who was a Publican, was a tax collector. He was collecting taxes from the Jews and sending the money to Rome and keeping a lot of it for himself. And of course, he was hated by the Jewish people because he was a servant of the Roman law.
So these are the two. They go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee thinks himself righteous before God and better than others, and the Publican would not even lift his eyes toward heaven, but he beat his breast. In the Greek language the tense of the Greek word indicates continuous action, so he continued to beat his breast and beat his breast, and he said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” In fact, in the Greek it should be rendered “the sinner.” This guy knew who he was. He was not living a lie, but the Pharisee was living a lie.
This morning I would like us to focus on two questions. And the first question is this, “Who are you?” A lot of times we want people to view us in a certain way. We want people to think we are really good. We want people to really like us. We want people to think that we’re unusually righteous or unusually nice. We want people to think we are deeply spiritual.
Sometimes we kind of pretend to be somebody we are not. That’s what people do. And how about you? Who are you? Colleges and universities sometimes give out honorary doctorates. And I have an earned doctorate, but I was very blessed to receive an honorary doctorate from Colorado Christian University a few years ago, in Divinity, and I’m honored and blessed to have received that because I love Colorado Christian University. I serve on the board. I believe Bill Armstrong, who is a former senator and a member of our church, is taking that university in the right direction. I think that is true both academically and spiritually, so I am very honored. But in the whole world of colleges and universities there are many honorary doctorates and some are more prestigious than others and I think there’s probably no honorary doctorate more prestigious than those given out by Princeton University.
Now, in the year 1792 Princeton gave out three honorary doctorates. The first was given to Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was this nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury and he served in the cabinet of George Washington, our first President. Alexander Hamilton also was the founder of one of our earliest political parties: The Federalist Party. The Federalist Party and Alexander Hamilton believed in large and powerful government and minimal states’ rights. He was given the first honorary doctorate by Princeton. The second was given to Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson also served on Washington’s cabinet when Washington served as first President of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson was our first Secretary of State. He was a political rival of Alexander Hamilton. They disagreed on many things and, in fact, Thomas Jefferson, along with Madison, formed another one of our nation’s first political parties: The Democratic Republican Party. And they believed in small federal government and maximum states’ rights.
So you have Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Jefferson would later become the third President of the United States. Princeton University could not have known the stigma that would one day come to Alexander Hamilton through Aaron Burr and the conflict they had, a conflict which led to Alexander Hamilton’s death. They could not have known the stigma that would come to Thomas Jefferson in the whole Sally Hemings affair. But they were deemed great men at the time and I think today this nation still views Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson as great and brilliant men–particularly Jefferson.
But there was a third doctorate given in 1792 by Princeton University, and who was that doctorate given to? Who was it given to? Well, strangely enough, it was given to a Christian minister. It was given to a Christian pastor. He had pastored in Olney, England, and he’d also pastored in London, England. He’d written the Olney hymns. He’d written the Olney Sermons. He had written Cardiphonia. Cardiphonia has to do with heartfelt letters. He had helped, along with William Wilberforce, to bring down the slave trade in Great Britain, and of course he had written one of the greatest hymns ever written: Amazing Grace. They gave that third doctorate—Princeton University in 1972—to John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace.
Did you know that Amazing Grace is a controversial hymn—a subject of some controversy in our time? “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” You see, that’s very controversial and there are some people out there who don’t want to sing a song where they refer to themselves as a “wretch.” In fact, there are other versions of the song now circulating where people have replaced the “wretch” with other words more palatable. How do you feel about that? When you sing Amazing Grace (and surely you all have) do you sing those words, “that saved a wretch like me”? Do you say that and mean it? Do you view that as an accurate understanding of who you are? John Newton did. He was a former slave trader, yes. He lived an immoral life, yes. But he believed everyone in the world is a wretch.
And what is a wretch anyway? Have you ever thought about that when you sing the song? What in the world is a wretch? Maybe when you think of the word wretch, maybe you think of somebody who is despised or contemptible, someone who needs pity. But understand that this word comes from the Middle English and it literally means outcast. A wretch is an outcast. It is someone who has been driven out and that’s why John Newton understood everyone in the world to be a wretch. He went back to Eden. He went back to Genesis. He went back to chapter three. He thought of the Garden. He thought of the fall of mankind when sin entered the world and mankind was driven out of the Garden and became outcasts. We’re all outcasts. We’re all driven out. There’s a sense in which because we are all sinners we were all in Adam and Eve. We are wretches. We are sinners. We are in desperate need of grace. That’s who we are.
Now, we are also wonderful, created by God, the crown of his creation. We are created, as you know, in his image and likeness, the imago Dei. We are precious to him, but we are fallen. We have fallen and we are sinners, and we are outcasts and we need salvation and grace. Who are you? I hope you know.
In the year 1983 an eminent psychologist wrote a book called People of the Lie. This psychologist was named Scott Peck and it was a national and international best seller, #1 on the New York Times best-selling book list. And who did Scott Peck say the people of the lie were? Who were they? They were people who wanted everyone to think they’re good, wanted everyone to think they are unusually good, unusually nice, unusually moral—people who don’t view themselves as outcasts, people who don’t see any wretchedness there, people who don’t seem to in their hearts feel like they’re sinners in need of grace. These are the people of the lie. ln the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the Pharisee was one of these people: The people of the lie. He thought himself righteous before God and better than others. He may have been better than a few, but he was still amongst the people of the lie.
I don’t know whether Scott Peck ever met William Golding. He might have. Their lives may have overlapped. William Golding died in 1993 at the age of 82. In 1983, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature; in 1988 he was knighted by the British Crown, Sir William Golding; and he’s famous today most of all for one book. What is that one book that William Golding is most famous for? That classic of literature called Lord of the Flies. This title, Lord of the Flies, is a possible rendering of the word Beelzebub, which is a title given to Satan. Sir William Golding believed there is a little bit of the Devil in everybody, so he wrote Lord of the Flies. Golding believed that if any of us in this room were to wake up tomorrow and suddenly believe that God doesn’t exist; if we were to wake up tomorrow with this new worldview and with this idea that God doesn’t exist; if we were to wake up tomorrow and think there’s no final judgment, there’s no ultimate accountability; there’s no culpability; there’s no eternal destinies, there’s no judgment seat; if you were to wake up tomorrow and you were to suddenly be in a world where there’s no law enforcement officers, no police department, no government, no structures of civilization; if you were to wake up tomorrow morning and there was no judicial system and no possibility of incarceration, how would you live? Would you change the way you live?
William Golding believed with all his heart that you’d change. Maybe not at first, but because you’re human and because you’re fallen and because sin resides in you, you would change. If there was no accountability, no structures of accountability, you would change and pretty soon you’d begin to do things you’d never thought you would ever do. Do you think that it’s possible human beings might be like that? It’s not PC. It doesn’t fit a lot of the philosophies that are out there in the world today. But biblically, I tell you, it is true. We are sinners in need of grace, and apart from Jesus Christ we are lost. So, who are you?
I want us to look at a second question, and that’s this: who does God want you to be? Who does God want me to be? Have you ever thought about that? What would please God and with what would he be satisfied? In 1786, a man named William Brody was arrested in Edinburgh, Scotland, arrested for burglary and theft. There was a public outcry in the city of Edinburgh because everybody loved William Brody. They all said, “You can’t do this. He’s no thief. He’s no robber. He’s a good man. He’s got a wonderful wife. He’s got great kids. He’s a great husband. He’s a great dad. And he’s a Christian. He’s a servant of Christ. He’s a member of the local Baptist Church and he’s a deacon. He’s not just William Brody. He’s Deacon Brody. He’s good.”
Well, the authorities began to take a deeper look at William Brody and they found that he had two other families, stealth families—other wives, other kids—not in Scotland, but in England. They found he had womanized in both countries. They found he had committed theft and robbery in both countries, England and Scotland. He was a bad guy.
Exactly a hundred years later, in 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a book called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And Robert Louis Stevenson confessed, by his own testimony, that he got the idea for the book from reading the life story of William Brody. Stevenson wrote that classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Stevenson believed that in each and every one of us there are two sides, almost two people.
There is something of biblical truth in that. The Bible says we have two different natures, each and every one of us. One nature reflects the imago Dei; the other nature reflects our sin and our fall. This is even true of us as Christians, and perhaps all the more so, because when we came to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and we embraced him as our Savior and Lord, he sent his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to tabernacle within us and we’ve been given internally a new nature. But the old nature, the sin nature, still is there. These two natures at war. You know this.
But what does God expect of us? God knows you have two natures. God knows I have two natures. He knows that I have a new nature in Christ, but he also knows that I have what the Bible calls the “sarks,” the flesh, the sin nature, the fallen nature. I have that, too. What does he expect of me? Does he expect of me to just get rid of the one nature so I only have the other nature? Does he expect me to just have the new nature and for the other nature to be dead and gone? Is that what he expects? I hope not, because if that’s what he’s expecting, I have failed. I don’t see the Bible saying that Christ expects that. He knows we have two natures. He wants us first and foremost to be honest about it—to be honest, to be real, to be genuine. Don’t live a lie. To pretend to people around you that your nature is just good—you don’t have flaws, you don’t have problems, you don’t have weaknesses, you don’t have sins, you’re so good—don’t live a lie. Be genuine and be real. That’s the first thing he expects. He wants you to be real.
And of course he expects you to come to the cross, to embrace his son Jesus Christ and to receive atonement through the shed blood of Christ who died for you and in your place. He expects you to come to the cross and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior so that the sins of that fallen nature might be forgiven you. But he also wants transformation. He also wants a process to be true of you called sanctification. So here’s the deal, here’s the rub, here’s the really hard thing: He wants you to come into the light. He wants you to confess your sin to him, but not only to him. See, that’s why the Bible says to confess your sins to one another. Isn’t that hard? You can’t live a lie. You can’t have a bunch of hidden sins. You can’t have a bunch of closet sins. If you’re the person he wants you to be, you’ve got to come into the light. You can’t just live a stealth life and be in the dark because it’s necessary for transformation.
Most of you have heard of Carlo Lorenzini, or maybe not. But he had a pen name and perhaps you’ve heard of that: Carlo Collodi. Or maybe not. He took that pen name because he lived in Collodi for a number of years. He was born in Florence. You know him because you’ve read his book and when you were little you heard somebody read that book to you probably. Carlo Collodi was born in 1826 and he wrote that book called The Adventures of Pinocchio. It’s about many things, but it’s also about lying. And you know the story, how if Pinocchio told a lie his nose would grow and if he deceived people his nose would grow. If he told a partial truth, his nose would grow. Wouldn’t it be crazy if the real world was like that? Wouldn’t it be crazy? Think of the world: Noses would be everywhere.
But it’s not like that. You can hide. You can live a lie. You can hide your sin and it isn’t going to show on your face. You can have addictive sins and maybe nobody know. You can live a lie. But you see in the Bible we are admonished to come into the light. That’s the meaning of 1 John 1. I think so many Christians have misunderstood it. It’s a beautiful passage. “This is the message we have heard from the beginning: God is Light. In him is no darkness at all. If we say we walk in the light, if we say we have fellowship with him while we live in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Have you ever asked yourself, what does it mean to live in darkness? What does it mean to walk in the light? I think some Christians think it must mean to be sinless. To walk in the light means to be sinless and to live in darkness means to practice sin. No. It’s about truth and lies. You look at the passage contextually and it makes it very clear you can’t live without sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The passage is about truth. God is truth. Come into the light. Don’t live in darkness. Walk in the light.
So, I would suggest to you this: It’s the hardest thing, but the Holy Spirit needs to guide your path and you need to begin with just asking God who you can tell. If you’ve got hidden sins, if you’ve got addictive sins—they might be sexual addictions, they might have to do with pornography; they might be sins related to drugs and alcohol; they might be other kinds of sins that are addictive in a different way, the sin of gossip and the tragic pleasure people find in gossiping over a cup of coffee; it might be pride and the false peace that pride brings; it might be envy, might be bitterness and the dark energy that bitterness can bring—there is something you might be hiding and you’re living a lie. So here’s where God wants you to begin: Find somebody. Let the Holy Spirit guide you but find somebody in Christ that can be a brother or sister to you—I think preferably of the same gender—and confess. Let them pray for you and hold you accountable. Let that be a beginning.
We have other things. We have Celebrate Recovery every Sunday night right here where you can come in a larger context and be open and be honest and come into the light. Hold each other accountable. But you see, who does God want you to be? He wants you to be real. He wants you to be genuine. He doesn’t want you to live a lie. This is the path of sanctification and growth and righteousness he wants us to be on. So let’s live without excuses, and let’s live without lies. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.